11 replies to this topic

[a-baby-inshallah]

I was wondering what everyone's thoughts/experiences are with the elective single embryo transfer. my husband and i would love to have twins, but we are scared of the risks during pregnancy plus, the health of the baby. i know that when you transfer two embryos, there is a chance that it will result in a singleton pregnancy, but the thought of a 2-embryo transfer working and resulting in a twin pregnancy scares me. i am just being honest and dont mean to be disrespectful to any mother out there who want/have twins. i am just very, very scared. any ideas/thoughts/experiences? sending baby dust to everyone!

[tmariederm]

There are many factors (age, response to stims, health factors etc.) that go into the decisions but I think most of us here would say that your RE's (doc) opinion should be heavily considered.

[bal]

Hi,
I guess it would depend on your age and situation. I transferred 2 embies on my fresh, 2 on FET1 and 2 on FET2. I have one DD from those 6. I now transferred 3 and am on 2WW. Twins are scary, but no baby is even scarier...

[a-baby-inshallah]

Thanks for the response. I am 37, responded excellently to the stims, got a lot of eggs at ER and have my ET on Monday, inshallah, as we say. My doctor is not in favor of a multiple pregnancy, but it is such a gamble to transfer just one. and such a gamble to transfer two- i would hate to see it all ending in tears if god forbid something happened to the babies. we are playing the lottery! Thanks, girls, for replying. +EMBRACE+

[bal]

Everything will be clear on Monday, God willing.
Let us know what you ended up deciding, ok?

[a-baby-inshallah]

Everything will be clear on Monday, God willing.
Let us know what you ended up deciding, ok?

and best wishes to you- for tomorrow, right?

[bal]

Everything will be clear on Monday, God willing.
Let us know what you ended up deciding, ok?

and best wishes to you- for tomorrow, right?

THANKS!!!

[nervus optimist]

I did a lot of research on the subject - in europe and in australia they are really pushing for single embryo transfer (in some countries it is the law) and so they have a very large sample size to look at across ages, Dx and other factors. at the end of the day - you are equally likely to get PG with SET - it just might take a tiny bit longer - there are almost no risks to freezing and huge risks to multiples (that being said there are lots of healthy multiples out there, but no one can argue that the potential risks are very serious).

last year there was a group that evaluated the idea of publicly funded IVF in ontario and they made strong recommendations for covering IVF on the condition that it be mandated to do SET as the default, and multiple transfers in specific situations only. the research showed this would lead to increased health for moms and babies and save the province a lot of money (that's right - the province should pay for IVF to SAVE money, just by doing SET)

at the end of the day you and your doctor will decide what's best for you - however the default answer for doctors here is to put in 2 and the default answer for docs in europe is to put in one.

we said right off the get-go that we were only prepared to do a SET - our doctor wanted us to do multiple and we just didn't feel comfortable with it for us. at the end of the day it was irrelevant as we only ever had 1 embryo from each cycle, but it was something we decided anyways.

on a side note - if you have lots of embryos to freeze and you want to do SET with your FETs, you need to ask your clinic to freeze each embryo in it's own straw - they typically freeze 2-3/straw and then each time you do an FET they thaw a straw (does that make sense). It is their default so if you want something different with your frozen embryos you should make sure they are aware.

best of luck whatever you decide!
wishing you lots of luck in your cycle

[foxburybaby]

My first IVF we transferred 2 embies..and as my Doc had all but promised, we got pg with twins. We lost that very healthy pregnancy at 21 weeks..something I NEVER want to go through again (it was due to an incompetent cervix, which of course you don't know you have till it's too late..). 2nd time around, we did eSET and got pregnant. My pregnancy was excellent and with the help of a circlage I gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Everyone is different, my story is probably not the "norm". Everyone's body and pregnancies are different. For me though, eSET is the way to go, because I don't want to risk putting myself through another twin pregnancy. Now my Dr.'s clinic is focused on singleton pregnancy when the situation is right.

Good luck with whatever you choose and may it lead to a happy and healthy pregnancy either way!

PS. I don't mean to offend any twin momma's or hopeful twin mommas..I'm just sharing my thoughts and experience.

[a-baby-inshallah]

Nervus Optimist and Foxburybaby Thanks for your amazing and wonderful responses. My doctor is not in favor of multiple pregnancies. I have so many friends with twin babies that I just thought it was the norm when you have IVF. When I went to see him he said he is in favor of the eSET. DH says that "we want a healthy pregnancy, not A Pregnancy" so he is in favor of the eSET. I am so happy the eSET worked out for you, and NervusOptimist, I am sending positive vibes and prayers your way!

Foxburybaby Were your embryos of superior quality if you dont mind my asking- if you do, feel free to ignore my question. Reason being, I am told that an eSET is best suited for those with high quality embryos (unless you dont have the best, and dont have a choice ie in my case, I dont know anything yet...). Thank you.

[Ope]

Embryos do much better in the womb , where they belong. Some embryo may survive in utero, but won't in the lab. If you have lots of good quality embryos, you can afford to do 5 day blast transfer and eSET. However, many IVF patients doesn't have this luxury.
This is something that you only will know once after ER and fertilization. When we did IVF I was 32 had great FSH , and no problem with me, we did IVF because of dh's sperm had low morphology. Well, despite my age, great FSH , I wasn't responded that well to stimulation, we got 11 eggs, but only 6 were mature, 5 fertilized. On day 3, we only had 2 quasi good, and 3 not good embryos.
We transferred the 2 acceptable quality , the others were not good for freezing. I got pg with a singleton, and had a great healthy pregnancy and a wonderful baby boy.
If we had been pushed toward eSET and 5 day transfer, probably none of our embryos would survived until day 5, and we won't be parents now.

Also i want to comment on the notion that many EU countries push eSET or even only allow eSET. This may be true, but in those countries , the government pays 100% for IVF and heavily subsidize the medications as well. Most couples in Canada do not have the financial ability to afford 4-5 IVF cycles to get pg with one baby, then again 4-5 cycle to get pg with a sibling.
I know that we had money for 3 fresh IVF at the most, so we are going to have as many kids as will result in 3 cycles.

Again decision is greatly depend on the # and the quality of the embryos and previous history. We do not want to have twins either, we even discussed selective reduction if I get pg with 3 or more. (there are always a chance for identical twins/triplets etc) . Still based on the chances eSET was not for us in the previous cycle.
If you are not transferring 2 perfect blast , the chance of twins low anyway.

[SunnyS]

My clinic has a big SET program, and in fact, there are only rare circumstances were they will transfer more than 1 blast. I personally was asked to only transfer one blast due to having Lupus, and pregnancy is going to be hard on me enough as it is, never mind a multiple pregnancy. I would listen to your doctor. In the end, they really do know what is best, even if you can't see it right now.